veggies

There’s nothing like the vibrant, sweet taste of vegetables fresh picked from your own garden. And now’s the perfect time to get started. Whether it’s a window box herb garden or a tilled backyard plot, growing your own veggies is deliciously satisfying. So let’s dig in and get our hands dirty

Global News

At Meatless Monday, there is a reason to celebrate every week by promoting plant-based food as a way to save the planet. But in 2017, Meatless Monday had even more reason to celebrate: this year marks 100 years since the first national campaign to encourage people to go meat-free. While the original mission has evolved into something addressing today’s concerns, the message has stood the test of time!

In the video below, the Meatless Monday team and founder discuss the history of Meatless Monday and how it still makes an impact after 100 years.

The idea of giving up meat one day a week originated in the fall of 1917 when the United States was trying to feed its citizens in the homeland as well as troops fighting abroad in World War I. It was sold as a patriotic way to support soldiers by making a simple sacrifice one day a week. Cookbooks focused on meat-free meals became a staple for housewives cooking for their families. Communities banded together to grow fruits and vegetables in Victory Gardens and learned that produce could play a starring role on the dinner table.

Now, with that one day a week officially designated to Mondays, the mission of Meatless Monday has turned to saving the entire planet. By reducing meat consumption by one day a week, greenhouse gas emissions will decrease, which will reduce our carbon footprint – that is, if everyone can pitch in and get on board the way they did during WWI! Now that Meatless Monday has campaigns around the world, the impact of eating a more plant-based diet can affect the health of the planet and the people living on it. Make a difference going Meatless Monday!

On Thursday, November 30, Meatless Monday participated in the Food as Medicine Summit held at the Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center. The summit featured expert speakers who discussed how problematic food habits have caused the number and prevalence of chronic diseases to rise. “Therefore, food must also be the solution,” according to the summit’s mission.

The summit kicked off with a welcome from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who has been outspoken in his support for Meatless Monday and healthy eating habits in NYC schools. The former police officer was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2016 but was able to put the disease into remission by switching to a healthier lifestyle that included more plant-based foods. He has been a strong proponent of bringing Meatless Monday to several schools in Brooklyn.

The opening keynote address was delivered by Dr. Robert Graham, a co-founder of FRESH Med NYC who promotes the idea of food as medicine, saying there should not be just a “pill for every ill.” Graham discussed how the top 10 causes of death are related to food and diet. His mission stands by food as a remedy and uses dietary changes as the first approach in managing illness at FRESH Med NYC.

Other speakers included Michel Nischan, chef and CEO of Wholesome Wave, and Stephen Ritz, CEO of Green Bronx Machine. Their panel discussed the impact of healthy food on children and its availability in schools. Nischan’s son was diagnosed with diabetes at age five; Ritz pointed out the difficulty in getting good produce in his South Bronx neighborhood. An emphasis was placed on not only getting kids interested in healthy eating at a young age but also making it fun for them to learn about it.

Meatless Monday President Peggy Neu spoke to the significance of “meeting education with action” and putting good ideas into practice. The healthcare industry is the “front line” in the battle to better inform and direct people towards more healthy lifestyles and diets. Rather than using “band-aid” remedies for chronic illnesses, Neu said, these diseases can and should be prevented with better eating habits.

Neu’s takeaway on the discussion of food as medicine: we need “new heroes” and better food choices need to be made “culturally relevant.” The bottom line of the Food as Medicine Summit was keeping people interested, keeping food exciting, and – most importantly – keeping people educated.

An open letter extolling the values of including food in the ongoing conversation about climate change is making the rounds on Medium, and Meatless Monday plays an important role. More cities and counties on the local level in the United States have taken charge on supporting the goals of the Paris Climate Accords to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically mentioned is how the rise of meat and dairy consumption has a major impact on the climate – 14.5 percent of the world’s entire greenhouse emissions. The letter cites Meatless Monday as a strategy to reduce this impact, asking local municipalities to consider adopting Meatless Mondays in their communities.

Food is rarely part of the climate change conversation, and this letter marks a positive turn for campaigns such as Meatless Monday that have been spreading the message that about reducing meat consumption and the large role it can play a big part in healing the environment. While many people are aware that a plant-based diet is good for the physical health of people, the fact that reducing meat consumption can lower our carbon footprint is mentioned far less often. Demand for meat and dairy is only projected to grow unless communities on the local level start the building the momentum to promote meat reduction. Action has been taken, but more cities and communities need to get onboard to make an even bigger impact.

“Cities and counties have led on climate action — by making buildings energy-efficient, increasing electric vehicles in city fleets, and sending less waste to landfills — but all these efforts won’t be sufficient to halt climate change if we do not also significantly slash emissions embedded in the food we eat. As a major meat-eating country consuming more than twice the global average, the U.S. has a major role to play (FAOSTAT, 2013).”

This letter, which was co-signed by Meatless Monday and dozens of other esteemed organizations, explicitly states the need for us to reduce meat and dairy consumption in order to benefit the environment. It also cites the 16 cities that have adopted policies that steer people towards more “healthy, climate-friendly food.”

Several cities and communities have seen Meatless Monday prove successful with their citizens. To learn more about how you can bring Meatless Monday to your community, visit the community page on our web site to find all the tools you need to start a campaign.

Meatless Monday continues to help aspiring young chefs get their shot at success! The Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) has announced this year’s recipe contest to give high school students a chance to win a scholarship and develop their talents as budding chefs.

Courtesy C-CAP

The “Go With Grains” Meatless Monday recipe contest will challenge student chefs to develop a meat-free recipe that puts the spotlight on different kinds of grains. The panel of celebrity judges will choose the winner based on “originality, flavor, healthfulness, ease of preparation, and writing ability.” While learning important culinary skills with the help of their teachers, juniors and seniors in underserved communities will also learn about the environmental impact of plant-based cooking.

Chef Marcus Samuelsson, a C-CAP board co-chair, will be one of the judges on the star-studded panel. “We’re thrilled to announce the stellar line-up of chefs on the panel that will judge this year’s recipe contest. Through this annual contest, culinary students receive guidance from their teachers on recipe writing and development and are able to showcase their talent of creating meatless recipes.”

The other judges include Rich Landau, a pioneer of modern plant-based cooking and the chef/co-owner of Philadelphia’s Vedge; Maria Loi, executive chef of Loi Estiatorio in New York City and a global ambassador of Greek gastronomy; Brother Luck, a C-CAP alumnus and the chef/co-owner of Four by Brother Luck in Colorado Springs; and Nicole Langone Scarangello, another C-CAP alumnus who is the director of menu management for the New York City Department of Education School Food.

C-CAP is a national organization that focuses on bringing culinary education and training opportunities to students in underserved communities. Along with Meatless Monday, C-CAP helps young chefs learn about smart ways to cook that will not only guide their careers but encourage a new wave of responsible, sustainable cooking to the culinary industry.

One national grand prize winner will receive a scholarship of $5,000 and six regional winners will win $2,000 scholarships. Winners are expected to be announced in the spring of 2018. Meatless Monday wishes all the participants good luck!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to get back on a healthy track. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take a short break from cooking! We’ve rounded up some of the best restaurants from around the country that offer Meatless Monday. Not only can you eat plant-based this holiday season but you can support a local business that is doing its part to make their communities healthier! Here are some restaurants offering great vegetarian and vegan options every Monday:

Oddfellows proudly supports Meatless Monday in an effort to make the world a healthier place. Just one of several plant-based meals offered at Oddfellows is a salad of baby greens with watermelon radish, gorgonzola & gooseberry-sherry honey vinaigrette. “It’s simple and delicious, and we hope our guests enjoy it as much as we do.”

Tallulah’s thinks every day can be meatless and is proud to be a part of Meatless Monday. They’ve created a vegetable-driven menu and on Monday’s they take it up notch. “Our recent favorite is a seared king trumpet mushroom dish with farro charred corn, zucchini ribbons, peas and ramp chermoula. We always enjoy eating our veggies at Tallulah’s, but especially when it’s for a good cause.”

Yuzu’s Asian-inspired menu offers up Meatless Monday specials every week. Their vegetarian bowls are half-price and offered until 2:00 AM. The bowls – which come in Indian-style and Tex-Mex options – can also include cauliflower rice for a small added charge!

Plant Power is a vegetarian restaurant every day of the week, but it boasts several customers who aren’t vegetarian or vegan at all. It has become a destination for Meatless Monday diners as well as others who are eager to try a better-for-you, fast food option. In addition to using natural, plant-based ingredients, Plant Power is also dedicated to using only biodegradable materials for their packaging, utensils, and dishes.

If you have a favorite restaurant in your hometown that follows Meatless Monday, we want to know about it! Contact us at info@meatlessmonday.com. We’d love to put them in the spotlight. And if you have a place that might want to try Meatless Monday, you can find more information on our site.

Even if you’re not going meat-free for Thanksgiving, you can still keep your sides plant-based! Meatless Monday has several recipes for delicious side dishes that are rich with veggies and flavor. If you’re tired of the sides you serve every year, put a new, vegetarian spin on some old classics! There are so many great meatless dishes that you can feel free to fill your plate with sides and skip the turkey.

Students and staff on two college campuses were treated to Meatless Monday last week featuring products by vegan brand Daiya! Both Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia celebrated “Meatless MonDaiya,” a collaboration between Meatless Monday and Daiya that provided a variety of vegan food choices in the campus dining halls.

Among the menu offerings at Hendrix were a vegan enchilada salad, lasagna, and a caprese grilled cheese – made with Daiya’s mozzarella-style cheese, tomato, and basil – that was so popular that the cooks could just barely keep up with the demand of so many enthusiastic diners.

William & Mary’s dining hall at the Sadler Building, which regularly hosts around 1,500 people at dinnertime, featured a global menu with chickpea curry, Caesar salad, and roasted sweet potato arepas with Daiya’s jalapeno Havarti cheese and cilantro yogurt sauce. Both locations also featured vegan cheesecake bites as a sweet treat for dessert.

Julie Nance, Campus Dietitian at William & Mary said, “Students who had never tasted vegan cheese often stated, ‘I can’t tell the difference between this and regular cheese!’ The initial plan was to only do tabling at one dining hall but because it was successful, the sustainability interns decided to set up a table to offer samples during the evening meal at the other dining hall.”

At Hendrix, “All the stations received high volume and positive feedback from students. Hendrix Students from the ECC (Environmental Concerns Committee) participated by handing out swag items to campus diners,” said Cindy Mosley, Associate Director and Dietitian of Dining Services.

As an added bonus for taking part in Meatless MonDaiya, Hendrix ran a hashtag giveaway for free “Find Your Happy Plate” t-shirts.

The events at Hendrix and William & Mary were great successes for both Daiya and Meatless Monday! The big turnout at both campuses was proof that offering a plant-based menu, even once a week, can still attract plenty of hungry students! If you want Meatless Monday at your campus, get in touch with us to hear how easy it is to make your dining hall a healthier place to eat!

Today marks the beginning of COP23, the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference which puts the spotlight on better environmental practices and global food security. This year, extra focus was put on upholding the Paris Climate Change Agreement which seeks to hold the global average temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius. By bringing together a global coalition, COP23 hopes to put forth an agenda that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

The gathering of 23 countries is taking place in Bonn, Germany and was preceded by a video announcement by Sir Paul McCartney of Meat-Free Monday in the UK. The video which also features Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and McCartney’s daughters Stella and Mary, Sir Paul explains how going meat-free one day a week can regulate the environmental damage caused by mass animal agriculture:

“There’s a simple but significant way to help protect the planet and all its inhabitants, and it starts with just one day a week. One day without eating animal products can have a huge impact in helping maintain that delicate balance that sustains us all.”

Meatless Monday shares the same mission and invites people to follow a meatless diet on Mondays, setting a healthy example for the start of every week. In addition to having great benefits for the environment, following a plant-based diet is also a great way to improve physical health and prevent chronic diseases.

Mark Bittman’s original How to Cook Everything Vegetarian was such a hit the first time around that the award-winning food writer decided it was time for an update. On November 7, Bittman will release a new edition which includes new recipes and information about the benefits of reducing meat consumption. We spoke with Bittman about what’s different in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Completely Revised Tenth Anniversary Edition and the many reasons why he felt it was time for a do-over.

1. What do you think has changed about plant-based eating since the first edition of your book was published? What compelled you to do a new edition?

Everyone wants to eat “healthier” than they did 10 years ago, and most people know that that means eating less meat. (When I ask audiences who’s eating less meat than they were 10 years ago, almost everyone raises their hand.) And there are so many resources available to vegetarians – and more importantly, semi-vegetarians or flexitarians – that it seemed worth an update. Plus, frankly, I was a little disappointed with aspects of my approach in the original, so I got to fix that.

2. Do you think that more people understand the benefits of eating less (or no) meat now? If so, what has contributed to that change? If not, why do you think people are resistant to that change?

Most, but not everyone. That goes without saying. (And see above.) Why? Overwhelming evidence that overproduction of meat is harmful to the environment and overconsumption is harmful to individuals. Not to mention producing animals as if they were widgets.

Anyone who only cooks animal products is missing out on a universe of flavors and textures that can’t be found elsewhere. Foods from the plant kingdom are generally easy to cook, but they’re also healthy, they’re inexpensive, they can be cooked in bulk, and they last for a long time. That’s not about “cooking vegetarian” – it’s about cooking. Period.

4. It says on your site that your mission is to make food “understandable.” What are people not understanding about food and how do you like to explain it to them?

The sheer amount of information out there—much of which is misinformation—is overwhelming, to say the least. I’m constantly reminding people that food can be delicious without being complicated; you can make something great with three ingredients. Once they’re on board with that mindset, it’s a good idea to get comfortable with substitutions and winging it. The goal of the recipe variations in the How to Cook Everything books is to get people to understand that they don’t have to follow a recipe word for word. In fact, it’s better if they don’t because whatever variation they use, whether it’s one of mine or something they come up with, will be tailored to their particular tastes.

5. Some people aren’t quite ready to change their entire diet or give up meat completely. What are some recipes that work for quick, weeknight Meatless Monday dinner?

Here’s the first line of HTCEV: “I’m not a vegetarian, nor am I invested in you becoming one.” Many foods are naturally meat-free, and the point is that we need to be eating more of those than we do now. That doesn’t mean not eating animal products – it means changing the focus. There are no sacrifices here. Consider recipes like Cream of Spinach Soup, Cauliflower Salad with Olives and Bread Crumbs, the infinite ways to make Beans and Greens (black beans with kale, cannellini with escarole, lentils with fennel, etc.), and the zillions of non-meat pasta dishes, like Pasta with Walnut Sauce and Pasta with Caramelized Onions.

This week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 15 public schools will offer Meatless Monday as part of a pilot program, with the potential to expand throughout the school system. Every Monday, students in the pilot will enjoy breakfast and lunch menus featuring meatless meals. De Blasio also added a personal commitment to start the practice at Gracie Mansion, his official residence “…we are now going to be instituting Meatless Mondays as well…We’re starting a new habit and I’m looking forward to it.”

New York joins a growing group of cities that are reducing meat consumption, with recent Meatless Monday proclamations issued in Pittsburgh, Sacramento, and Vancouver, B.C. Global leaders, including Argentinian President Mauricio Macri and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have also committed to practicing Meatless Monday.

“Cutting back a little on meat will help make our city healthier and our planet stronger for generations to come,” said de Blasio. He added that both the obesity and climate change crises can be meaningfully addressed by adopting a more plant-based diet.

Sid Lerner, founder of The Monday Campaigns and the Meatless Monday movement, said, “We’re thrilled that NYC schools will participate in Meatless Monday to introduce kids to delicious plant-based options that can create healthy eating habits for life. Congratulations to the mayor for his leadership in taking Meatless Monday into the future, for our health and the health of the planet.”

The Meatless Monday movement has been integrated into schools, restaurants, hospitals, college campuses, corporations, and communities. Free resources to start Meatless Monday are at www.meatlessmonday.com/start-a-campaign.